Notes from the May 6, 2016 meeting at Interference Archive

There was a bit of a lapse of Radical Reference, but there was a decision to try to pull the group back into action because it seemed like there was renewed interest.

The last meeting involved brainstorming of projects -- see the minutes here.

3. Discussion of possible projects

Stephen mentions possible collaboration with Five Borough Defenders, an unofficial group of legal aid lawyers -- to strategize a way to collect information on legal research and curate it.

Next steps: Stephen will let them know that we're interested in a social event to meet them and talk about the issues they're working on and how we could work together.

Jen read the list of brainstorming/projects from last meeting's minutes.

Discussion on subject guides on the existing website. Cynthia asks if it would be alright to add to these; she has a tenant rights/resources libguide she could share. To start with, she'll share a link to the libguide that could be made available through the Rad Ref website if that seems to be a good idea.

It's important to work on something that has a critical mass of interest, so that we have a lot of people working on it.

Internet infrastructure walking tour -- this is something Melissa would like to do anyway, and she'll reach out to Ingrid about this.

Interference Archive projects, like cataloging parties -- Jen will share info about this kind of event through the Radical Reference listserv.

Discussion about how to get your foot in the door if you're interested in working in libraries -- volunteering, although this is something of a privilege. It's hard to know how much free labor to give in the interest of future goals.

Discussion of internships, and the issues of unpaid internships -- Jen talks about some of the issues that Interference Archive has seen in having or considering unpaid interns; Stephen suggests that this is a great idea for a project -- coordinating a panel/talk on internships done right, and what organizations look for in an intern. Jen will reach out to a current library school student to find out what time of year (before deadlines for internship applications) would be good to host this. (update: deadline for summer internships is May 1-15; fall internships is sometime in June...more info coming).